For theists, God is a being in which they depend on, and a lot of their actions are driven by their faith in such a being, even though it is unsure as to whether He exists or not. In my opinion, free will isn’t as easily applied when one believes in God. For example, in Islam, the consumption of alcohol is frowned upon, or in its more extreme form, requires women to cover themselves by wearing the hijabs. Thus, you can see that religion somewhat coerces certain believers’ actions. There are so many women in Iran for example, that have to cover themselves as mentioned, even against their own will, because they would be penalized for it otherwise. Even outside of the country, the women are obligated to cover themselves. Theists also believe that essence precedes existence, in that one’s course in life is predetermined and that choices will be made based on laws, traditions and religion.

While God may dominate certain people’s choices, His existence does not only concern free will. Many people find comfort in their God and that they can depend on something, especially in times of hardship. Others simply want to express their gratitude for their fortunes in life. The very existence of God is something many agonize over in this world, and what people seem to forget is that we each have the ability to make our own choices and develop our ‘essence’ as we go along in life, which is taken from these very choices, our experiences, and our responsibilities. It is for this reason that I think the existence of God should not be debated any further. Would I like to know if God exists? Sure, but I am not going to lose sleep over this million-dollar question. I believe in free will and that we determine our own fate in life. While other factors in life such as our culture, family values, nationality and religion may influence our choices, we as individuals are what ultimately make the choice. Often you will hear the phrase, “but I had no choice!” This is wrong. We always have a choice. Hitler and his subordinates had a choice when they decided to kill 6 million Jews; citizens of the U.S. had a choice when they decided to vote for Bush; the guards in Zimbardo’s notorious Stanford Prison Experiment had a choice, but decided to give in to the power of the situation and treat the prisoners the way they did.

In a general sense, absurdism is a philosophical element that addresses the people’s problem in searching for sense of their own life in contrast to the lack of it’s meaning.

In philosophy, “The Absurd” refers to the conflict between people’s inability to seek the real meaning in life. It does not mean “logically impossible”, it’s more “humanly impossible”.

Absurdism is not created by the universe and the human mind separately but rather it arises from the two existing together at the same time.

Therefore, Absurdism is a “philosophical school of thought” that states that the people’s effort of finding the true meaning of life will ultimately fail and therefore be “absurd”. Because such meanings don’t exist at least in relation to the individual.

Absurdism also looks at the nature of the Absurd and how individuals react to it once aware of it. Absurdism has its origins in the 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. It was born of the European existentialist movement that ensued when the French Algerian philosopher and writer Almus Camus rejected certain aspects from that philosophical line of thought and published his manuscript “The Myth of Sisyphus”. Absurdism developed especially in France after World War 1.